Could Steve Spagnuolo reset his head coaching hopes with Chiefs?

Steve Spagnuolo could once again reset his head coaching hopes with the Chiefs.

The eye always moves toward the offense.

When NFL owners or analysts alike are looking for new head coaching candidates around the league, the eye always jumps to Andy Reid‘s specialty—the offensive genius—when deciding if the Kansas City Chiefs have someone to offer up for future leadership at the highest level: head coach of a franchise. It makes sense given the level of excellence and history of tutelage from those who’ve learned under Reid.

When it comes to the next round of coaching hires, some of which will undoubtedly come toward the end of an unpredictable season affected by COVID-19 in just a few months, one name you’re going to hear early and often is already linked to the Chiefs in offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy. After a couple years of being a heralded candidate, it now feels ridiculous that no one has yet hired someone so obviously ready for the job.

Even beyond Bieniemy, some analysts are already talking about the potential of someone like quarterbacks coach Mike Kafka. Dave Toub, the team’s assistant head coach and special teams coordinator, has also earned a couple head coaching interviews over last few years.

But what about the defensive side? The Chiefs changed defensive coordinators heading into last offseason (2019) when they fired Bob Sutton and hired Steve Spagnuolo. In the process, the Chiefs went from a sinking ship on defense, one that forced the offense to put up a disproportional amount of points, to one of the NFL’s best down the stretch. In fact, the Chiefs defense led the NFL in scoring defense from Week 11 until season’s end in 2019.

Spagnuolo’s work on the defensive side was something to behold through the team’s Super Bowl run. At the beginning of the year, it was clear that so many new faces were working to figure things out. Spagnuolo’s impressive young staff learned the strengths of each player and how to utilize them in concert together. Players adjusted as changes were made. The team battled injuries to their two best pass rushers, yet came out the other side as a fearsome unit by season’s end.

Heading into a new year, there’s a newfound level of confidence on the defensive side of the ball that the Chiefs haven’t felt or displayed since players like Derrick Johnson, Justin Houston, Tamba Hali and Eric Berry were in their respective prime years. That’s on Spags and company for so successfully employing the talent they’ve been handed.

This, it seems, should be a sign for a potentially successful head coach. Does the candidate know how to listen and learn and adjust? Yes. Does the candidate know how to get the most of his players? Yes. Does the candidate trust and nurture his coaches? Maybe. There are some things we can’t know, as outsiders, but Spags certainly seems to be a nice mentor for positional coaches whose work was so notable—names like Brendan Daly and Sam Madison among others.

Spagnuolo has been here before, obviously, and a “retread” hire is never exciting for a fan base, especially one with an unfortunate history. As head coach of the St. Louis Rams, Spags’ record as a head coach is quite loud at 10-38. Those are miserable years. Those are Todd Haley memories (worse, really). Chiefs Kingdom has endured such droughts and no one wants to relive those experiences.

Here’s what’s also true about those years. Spags took over for Scott Linehan and inherited a team devoid of talent. The Sam Bradford experiment didn’t quite work out and the Rams roster was beset by numerous injuries and questionable free agent signings. Spagnuolo certainly deserves as much of the blame as anyone for the disappointing tenure, but it’s possible for coaches to learn valuable lessons from those early days atop a leadership chart—just ask Bill Belichick.

For his part, Spagnuolo has made it clear that he would make the leap if offered the chance. From an interview with CBS Sports:

"“Oh, certainly. Listen, that desire and passion never changes. But I will say this . . . I’m a blessed man to have the job I have. If it’s not in God’s plans, I’m OK with that. But I’ve always kept preparing myself that way. It would be great if it happened, and if not, again, I’m very fortunate to be where I am.”"

Reid’s coaching tree is second to none in the NFL and it’s certainly impressive to see the work Spagnuolo has done with the team’s defense in a single season. Since that time with the Rams, Spags has also added another several more years of experience as a high-level coordinator with the New Orleans Saints and New York Giants. If the Chiefs are able to run it back, how is a back-to-back Super Bowl winning defensive coordinator not on the table as a head coaching option?